Craftsman digital torpedo level idea

i have a craftsman digital torpedo level as my altitude SC. However there is a problem, the display is a bright green, but not bright enough to shine through taillight tape. This basically ruins dark adaptation unless I'm diligent about using a eyepatch. so my idea is to buy some glass stain for a couple bucks and stain the display transparent red. does anyone know if this would work? or would it just ruin my level?

The LED display has a wavelength output that is in the green so there is very little red light available if any. I would try looking through red transparent plastic to see what level of output you get. Even a clear red candy wrapper will work for a test. You can also look thru a red eyepiece filter at the display and see how visible it.

The display is a backlite LCD that uses LEDs for the backlighting. A LCD is polarized so if you get some polarizing plastic film you can rotate it to dim the display. If you have a pair of polarized Sunglasses you can try it out to see how it works.

Dave, would what you're suggesting work from any viewing angle?
Thanks,
Gary

Gary,
If you can find plastic that acts like neutral desnity filter then I would try that. Maybe some of the film used to tint car windows. You could also double and triple layer it to get the amount of reduction in brightness that you want.

Look at it with polarized glasses and turn the torpedo level to see if the image disappears. If it works, which it should as David suggested, then you can get a polarizing filter for a camera (not a circular polarizer) and a filter ring (empty) of the same size then permamently mount the empty ring and screw the polarizer to it. Now you will be able to turn the polarizer to control the brightness from nearly 100% through put to 0% through put. That will be controlled with only 1/4 turn of the filter.

sounds like a good idea. until i get a polarizer to do that i taped my moon filter i don't use to it. it seems to work pretty well. thanks for the idea, and i'm sure others will benefit from that suggestion as well.